Humbucker for a brighter/tighter high gain

Elwood

Afternoon all. Some rainy afternoon recommendations for a humbucker are humbly requested.

I'm looking for something that will provide more treble to a mahogany superstrat (ebony/maple neck with vintage trem). It is for playing at home, so nothing that requires massive headroom to work. My preference is for something for a tight metal sound.

I think Dimarzio Evolution is the way to go, but am open to suggestions. I've tried a Seymour Duncan JB in a set neck guitar and while it was an improvement, it wasn't quite right. 

Thanks in advance. 

Gassage

Fender WRHB would be perfect.

ICBM

DiMarzio Evo or Duncan Distortion.

Cols

Bill Lawrence L500XL, as favoured by Nuno and Dimebag.  

https://www.wildepickups.com/products/l500?variant=32504736120894

Be warned, it could take your head clean off.

maidenfan

Tonenerd Roxy

guitarfishbay

I’d go Dimarzio Evolution if you mostly want searing leads, or Duncan Distortion if you mostly want tight rhythms. Either will work and I’ve used both and been happy. My memory is the Evolution is slightly brighter.

The Evo 2 is good too, if you think you’d prefer the Dimarzio and think the original Evolution might be a bit too much. If only one of the two is available used I’d just get whichever you find first, the difference wasn’t huge but it’d still be worth getting the one more to your taste if you had the choice 

noisepolluter

I really like the Oil City Airship Trooper. Also pairs very well with a Nightfighter in the neck. 

monkey42

Suhr Aldrich 

steamabacus

I'd suggest the Seymour Duncan Screamin' Demon. Works brilliantly in a strat, tight bass, bright harmonically rich tonality. Contrary to what its name suggests though, it's not massively high output (more hot PAF levels) but takes gain really well.

Funkfingers

Seymour Duncan Perpetual Burn Trembucker.

skullfunkerry

Oil City Djenerator. It's nice & tight, but really clear with gain. Also the Seymour Duncan Alpha or Omega (can't remember which is the bridge pickup) - it's absolutely massive sounding, but nice and tight too.

timmypix

Of the pickups I've had, the brightest and surgically tightest has been a Bare Knuckle Cold Sweat.

You're right to avoid the JB, as it is neither of those things.

Ask 10 guitarists for pickup recommendations and you'll get 12 responses, but at least you'll have plenty of options to look into!

ICBM

In my opinion you really need a ceramic magnet for tightness - there are many great higher-output pickups with alnico magnets, some of which are bright, but none of them have the same focused tightness in the bottom end as something like the Evo.

OilCityPickups

ICBM said:

In my opinion you really need a ceramic magnet for tightness - there are many great higher-output pickups with alnico magnets, some of which are bright, but none of them have the same focused tightness in the bottom end as something like the Evo.

This ... I'd go for ceramic too, but not one of the double thickness magnet ones ... probably nowt over 13k or 14k (43awg) at the bridge ... there are quite a few pickups on the market that fit that bill :-) 

Elwood

Thanks for the suggestions! Is 43awg the standard wire used in humbuckers? I think I've asked in the past about your Havoc pickup @OilCityPickups, that had something special going on? 

OilCityPickups

Elwood said:

Thanks for the suggestions! Is 43awg the standard wire used in humbuckers? I think I've asked in the past about your Havoc pickup @OilCityPickups, that had something special going on? 

42awg (Thickest generally used for humbuckers) is used for PAF style lower output pickups. 43awg is used for medium output pickups, and is not as compressed as 44awg as used in for example the Duncan JB. 
Yep the Havoc is a special case ... it has taller than standard bobbins so that you can use thicker wire to get a high output ... more clarity and less compression ... plus a triple magnet array for focused bass.
I only wind these to special order these days as they are a little time consuming :-) 

Kittyfrisk

Slightly surprised at no mentions of Neodymium humbuckers?

OilCityPickups

Kittyfrisk said:

Slightly surprised at no mentions of Neodymium humbuckers?

Neos on their own are a bit over the top in the top end - brilliant for the bottom end mind ... 

Moloch

ICBM said:

In my opinion you really need a ceramic magnet for tightness - there are many great higher-output pickups with alnico magnets, some of which are bright, but none of them have the same focused tightness in the bottom end as something like the Evo.

Agreed. My choice for the same job was the Bare Knuckle Ragnarok and ooooooooooooooooh boy, that thing slices!

Philly_Q

Bare Knuckle Cold Sweat is bright and tight, maybe not a full-on metal pickup though.  It's great in a mahogany set-neck, I'm not sure what it would be like in a bolt-on (although of course all electric guitars sound exactly the same... ).

Edit:  Just noticed @timmypix has mentioned it already.

Elwood

Moloch said:

ICBM said:

In my opinion you really need a ceramic magnet for tightness - there are many great higher-output pickups with alnico magnets, some of which are bright, but none of them have the same focused tightness in the bottom end as something like the Evo.

Agreed. My choice for the same job was the Bare Knuckle Ragnarok and ooooooooooooooooh boy, that thing slices!

Looks great, though £195 for a single humbucker is very expensive!